HOWL

I did my first official reading from Snakes & Ladders on Tuesday night. It was on Nik Beat's CIUT FM radio show, HOWL. CIUT is the University of Toronto's radio station and HOWL is a show that mixes spoken word with performances by singer songwriters. I was floored when I walked into the studio to find that I'd be sharing the hour with none other than Alanna Myles. For those who don't know, Torontonian Alanna Myles was once the most famous female blues-rock singer in the world. Her self-titled 1989 LP contained the track "Black Velvet" which went to #1 on pop-rock charts worldwide except for on the English charts, where it rose to #2, unable to defeat Madonna's "Vogue". The song has since gone on to become a beloved part of the classic-rock canon.

Alanna was at HOWl to promote her new CD, called...you guessed it...Black Velvet. In studio with her was an amazing young singer-songwriter named Joshua Bartholomew and he accompanied her on guitar as she sang the title track. You can hear the performance yourself if you go to the CIUT website this week and click HOWL in their schedule grid (Tuesday 10pm). For obvious reasons I can't post it here, but I'd encourage you to go have a listen. It gave me goosebumps.

I've excised my reading from the show and posted the audio file above. (Thanks to HOWL and Nik Beat. And thanks to OBTO for tech help.) It runs about 12 mins and is not the greatest reading ever, but what the hey.